Journey 2050 Lesson 5: Land Use | Self-Guided Experience

PRESENTER: This is the Journey 2050
self-guided experience.

We're on lesson five about land use.

So far in the program,

we've learned about soil nutrients,
water, and the economy,

and how those three factors
can either support sustainability

or limit it.

Today, we are going
to be talking about, uh, land use.

So, question for you,

how much of the Earth's surface
is used for growing food?

If you take a look at the Earth,

not every portion of it is a place
where we can grow food.

There is a lot of water,

and it looks like a lot of places
that aren't ideal to grow food on.

To begin answering this question,

I'm going to do a demonstration
with an apple.

I want you to imagine
that the surface of the Earth

is the surface of this apple.

I'm going to take this apple
and quarter it

which will give us four pieces.

With the apple cut in quarters,
I'm going to take one of them away.

The remaining three represent
the portion of the Earth

that's covered in water.

I'm going to set aside the three pieces
that represent water on the Earth

and pull back in the one quarter
of the apple

that represents the Earth's surface
that's land.

Not all land is created equal.

So, I have cut this piece
representing the land on the Earth

into three pieces,
so they represent 1/12 sections.

So, 1/12 of our Earth
is inhospitable land.

This is places like polar regions,
deserts, and mountains,

where it's not suitable to live
or to grow crops.

I'm going to set that piece aside
and look at the next piece.

This is habitable land.

This is places where people live,
but crops aren't grown.

So think of places where houses are built,

where there's roads and developments,
or public lands.

This is another 1/12 section
of our Earth.

This last 1/12 section
is Earth's agricultural land.

This is the place
where our food is grown.

To dig a little bit deeper,
I'm gonna cut this piece into four pieces.

3/4 of our agricultural land

is land that is used to graze livestock
or to grow feed for livestock.

The remaining quarter of this piece
which represents 1/48 of our Earth

is agricultural land
that grows food that humans eat.

So this is fruits, vegetables,
beans, rice, grains.

Food that is for direct human consumption.

Here's a summary.

So if the entire apple was our Earth,

and the surface of it--
75% of the Earth's surface is water,

25% of the Earth's surface is land.

If we divide the land, uh,

we have one--
a 1/12 section that's inhospitable land.

A 1/12 section that is habitable land,

but covered in houses,
roads, and open areas.

And then a--

the final 1/12 section is
the agricultural land

that produces our food.

If we divide the agricultural land down,

3/4 of that is used for livestock,
feed, and gra--grazing, uh,

that then the livestock produce meat,
milk, and eggs.

And then 1/4 of that
is land used for food crops.

This finishes up step one on your handout.

Uh, here's another summary slide,

if you need help filling out
the percentages on your handout.

For step two on your handout,
pause this video,

and watch the land use video
and answer the questions.

We're moving on to step three now.

This is a question I have for you
that you should be able to start answering

with the information
we've already been over,

but why is land a precious resource?

Just like water and soil nutrients
that we've already talked about,

land is also a limited natural resource
that we have to provide for our needs.

Land also has a lot of uses,

and we have a lot of needs for land
for different reasons.

We have lan--we need land
to build businesses and industry.

We need land for recreation.

We need land for animal habitats.

For homes and roads, for food.

So land is a resource
that is not only limited,

but it's needed
for a large variety of things.

This is a map that shows
population statistics by country.

If you look at the legend,

the darker the color,
the more people that live there.

So just take a few minutes
and take a look at that.

Uh, something that you should
be able to gather from that

is that people typically live
in the places

where they have the things they need
to grow their food.

So, things like fertile land,
ideal crops, etcetera.

So thats one challenge that we face
in our land use and sustainability

is that the land that we want,
or are able to farm on,

is also the land where people want
to settle and live and build houses.

Before we move forward,
I also want to go backwards t--

uh, back to this map
of the population statistics by country.

Are these two maps correlated?

Do you see any similarities
between the two maps

that show the population statistics
by country

as well as the agricultural land
by country?

I'll show you the other one once more.

The answer is yes, there is a correlation
between agricultural land

and the places where people live.

Homes and businesses are very often built

in the places that have the best climate
and soil for growing crops.

In summary, best management practices,
innovation, and technology

is what helps us only a fraction
of the Earth's surface

to feed a growing population.

That wraps up step three of this lesson.
We're gonna move on to step four,

which is to play
the next level of the game.

As a heads up in this level,
you're gonna be seeing something different

than what you have in the previous ones.

So what you're gonna be doing
is making predictions

for the percentage of land used
by nature, urban, and agriculture

in the 1900s compared to the year 2000.

So go ahead and pause this video,
and then go to your game,

and play level 5a,
and stop when you're done.

To summarize what we've been learning
in the video

and through this level of the game,

farmers have increased yields
of food production

by using better practices,
better science, better technology.

And, uh...

the use of best management practices
is what's helping us be more sustainable

in that process.

So how do we improve our land use choices
so that we can feed a growing world,

and still have a high quality of life
and environment?

Alright, we are gonna go through a few...

examples.

In natural habitats we're going to replace
what we use and keep the environment

clean, plant native species, remove
invasive species and don't just talk

about stewardship, take action.

In agriculture we're going to improve
soil health, so that we can grow more on

the same amount of land, we're going to
use technology to make more efficient

use of out inputs like water and
fertilizer. We're also going to

sustainable use the land that
is already in production .

In an urban setting we're going to retain
the urban wetlands and riparian areas.

We're going to reduce food waste and only
buy what we need to eat.

We're also going to build businesses up
and not out preserve the land we have.

We're almost done here on this lesson.

What you're going to do now is review the

key points these are also printed on
your handout.

Listed as an aditional activity to this
lesson is to play the 5B level of the game

This is a world geography game. Its a Q&A
style game that has clues imbedded in the

questions. You're going to think of your
favorite foods and sports

and music and travel places and
relate them to the cultures and different

countries.

You're going to explore some of
the favorite things and where they come

from, and how trading goods from around
the world allows us to enjoy those things.

This wraps up lesson 5 on land use.

Up next is lesson 6 on careers.